To make sure your hair is at it's maximum growth rate, eat healthy and take vitamins. Maybe exercise if your not already. Other than that the best you can do is make sure the ends don't break off and keep it healthy. Cut down on product use and heat styling if you're doing that. Comb gently starting from the bottom and working your way up, making sure not to rip through tangles, break hair or pull any hairs out that aren't ready to shed.

HAIR STRUCTURE

Hairs are elongated keratinized structures. Keratin is a special protein, which is resistant to wear and tear. It is the protein that also makes up the nails. Like other proteins in the body, keratin is also a large molecule made up of smaller units called amino acids. The amino acids are joined together in a chain, like beads on a string.

The diameter of a single hair fiber varies from person to person; but it is usually around 0.05 to 0.09 millimeters.

The epidermis is the outermost layer of the skin. Each hair arises from an indentation on the epidermis. The hair has two parts: the hair follicle and the hair shaft.

The hair follicle is the point from which the hair grows. It is a tiny cup-shaped pit buried in the fat of the scalp.

The terminal part of the hair follicle seated within the skin is called a hair bulb. The hair bulb is the structure formed by actively growing cells. These cells produce the long, fine and cylindrically shaped hair fibers. Here in the hair bulb, there are some special cells, which produce the pigment that gives the hair its color. This pigment is called melanin and the cells producing it are known as melanocytes. We also know that receptors for the male hormones - androgens, are located on the cells of this structure.

At the base of each hair bulb is the dermal papilla containing a vessel tuft. Thus, it is essential for the nourishment of the growing hairs. Within the skin, internal and external root sheaths cover the hair follicles. The external root sheath of a hair follicle is continuous along with the epidermis. There are also some glands adjacent to the hair follicles. The most important one of these glands is the sebaceous gland, which produces and secretes the natural oils lubricating hairs, namely sebum.

The part of the hair seen above the skin is called the hair shaft. The hair shaft is made up of dead cells that have turned into keratin and binding material, together with small amounts of water. This structure explains why we do not feel any pain while our hair is being cut.

The hair shaft is formed by three layers. The innermost layer of the hair shaft is named the medulla. It is seen only in large and thick hairs. The middle layer of the hair shaft is called the cortex, made of keratin fibers. The strength, color and texture of a hair fiber are provided by the cortex layer of the hair shaft. The outermost layer of the hair shaft is the cuticle. This thin and colorless layer made up of between six to ten overlapping layers of long cell remnants, serves as a protection to the cortex.

I thought hair that has left the scalp is dead? So how does the bulb feed the dead hair, whether it's the hair at the very ends or hair near the scalp? And if it does feed the dead hair, then I still don't see how cutting it will speed up a persons growth rate. And even if it does speed up the growth rate, I don't see how that will make hair get longer faster.

 

Lets say someone is at shoulder length and wants to be at waist. So they cut back a couple inches to make it grow faster because that way the bulb will have less dead hair to feed. But when they gain that couple inches back wont they be in the same place as before? And when they get even longer then the bulb will have even more dead hair to feed so then their growth will slow down even more? So, even if frequent trims do affect growth rate then wouldn't it be pointless anyway? Since the reason why someone wants faster growth is usually to get longer faster.

 

I've had both very short and long hair. I've done frequent trims and also went years without a trim. I've never noticed the growth rate slowing down or increasing.

 

Getting your hair trimmed every 6 to 8 weeks, encourages the hair growth cycle, doest make the hair grow faster, but encourage healthier hair, getting rid of split ends. There are so many factors that effect the hair.

 

Bad diet, not drinking enough water, chemical treatments (colouring/perming), to much sun light, build up of products, chlorine, from swimming.

 

I encourage my clients to have regular trims to help maintain healthy looking hair, although I wouldn't say it speeds up their hair growth, but this will encourage healthy looking hair, trimming away dead ends.

 

Karen

 

 

[QUOTE=karen s]

 

I encourage my clients to have regular trims to help maintain healthy looking hair, although I wouldn't say it speeds up their hair growth, but this will encourage healthy looking hair, trimming away dead ends.

 

Karen

 

 

 

I didn't think it would make hair grow faster, which is the point of the OPs post. But I don't think it encourages the hair growth cycle either. The cycle will continue the same whether one gets trims or not.

 

I understand the ends are dead, but so is the rest of the hair. Unless by dead you mean damaged. Then I could understand that reasoning. But not everyone has damaged ends. If the OP has damaged ends then, yes, it might be best to get trims until it's all gone.

 

Edit: And from the pictures and the text, I'm getting the impression that whatever is going on during the "feeding" is happening around the hair that's under the skin. Does the bulb, or blood, or whatever, actually give whatever it's feeding to the ends? It leaves the scalp, and travels down and inside the hair strands, to the very ends, to feed them?

Its the sebum, (natural oils) from the sebaceous gland that keeps the hair from drying out.